Keeping the Wii U around until the next xbox and playstation arrive would be a disaster.

And the hardware gap will be far too big between a handheld releasing next year and a home console releasing in 4-5 years. The most logical step is releasing two consoles near simultaneously; one handheld and one home console and have a unified architecture, or at least close to unified, rather than trying to fit a new system of cross-platform development onto already existing devices; that's fitting square pegs into round holes if I ever heard of it.

Why would Sony do that. The best thing aout being a supplier to your competition is that you get to make money no matter who is selling well. And SOny has no reason at all to shit on Nintendo like this. Nintendo is no threat to Sony. Though perhaps if PS4 doesn't get DQXI or a Monster Hunter game for PSV+PS4 maybe Sony might get a bit pissy.

But seriously, fusioning with a console that is well past it's peak, by the time NX launches, and with a very low peak at that is definitely a bad idea.

Business speaking this would be safe but there wouldn't be any room for them to grow. The Handheld market has a roof and I don't think Nintendo could have done much more to sell the 3DS. Even if they poured all their resources into the system there is only so much revenue they could make back, only so much software they could sell before cannabalising their own sales.

Outside of profit I'm pretty sure Nintendo want to deliver experiences for the big screen like Zelda, 3D Mario, Mario Kart, Smash Bros....so until its financially unviable they will continue to do so. if this was all just a discussion of money they would have released a freemium pokemon game on mobile years ago but they have actual values and ambitions that they want to deliver on.

I like it! I agree that the NX will be their next handheld iteration and not the home console. And I can see some sort of cross buy feature being implemented between the NX, Wii U and future consoles using their new membership service (that will replace Club Nintendo).

Buy a Wii U game, get a downloadable copy on you NX. Buy a game for your NX and get a downloadable copy for Wii U. Only if you're registered to the Nintendo Online Membership of course.

This gives Wii U a little longer lifespan, which means that the next home console can be a bit stronger compared if it were to be released in 2016

I'm thinking the HH NX launching Holiday 2016 (or Spring 2017) and the home console NX launching Holiday 2017

Well, they said they'd keep backing the Wii U until all Wii U owners were satisfied, so drawing them into this circle of NX, 3DS, Wii U, PC, Mobile through one membership and making cross-platform offers possible would fit with that.

No, it's not. Wii U isn't a success, it's as far from it as Nintendo ever got, except by the Virtual Boy. Creating a new "Fusion" platform and using as basis a troubled consoles that has a lot of bad marketing and word of mouth around it is plainly stupid. They are better of starting with a new one. Just think about it. The Wii was basically a GC. Nintendo could create a "GC Mote" and make a Wii with it. But they would base their new concept on an old console that nobody bought.

Once a product get a bad impression from the public, changing it becomes an uphill battle, like PS3. You only fight one of those when you don't have another option, because it's hard, costly, and still won't be anywhere as good as starting a new one with the right approach (compare PS4 and PS3).

The X1 created a bad impression and it was enough to implode the market share of the previous gen. Even with the 180s, price cuts, even being cheaper in the US than the PS4, it still isn't catching up. It only managed to win in Nov/Dec when a PS4 was US$400 with one game and the X1 retailed for US$299/349 with 2 games and a US$50 voucher. The Vita got a bad impression of having no games, being expensive and having expensive memory cards. Even if some of these things are fixed, the console isn't improving. People like success, they don't want the failures.

I think the Wii U amassed a bad consumer reaction. It doesn't sell, it doesn't have 3rd party games, it's weak, the controller isn't good and so on. That's what the consumer see. Putting a new console and advertising it WITH the U will make the new one looks like the companion of a failure. And that's another failure. Despite that, associating something new with a console that's relatively old will remove the consumer feeling that it is something fresh.

To conclude, changing a bad image is hard and even in the best cases it doesn't end that good. The new Nintendo handheld console, Fusion or not, deserves a clean start and can't be associated with a product that simply didn't worked.

PS.: When I talk "new console", I mean handheld. People thinking that NX is a home console are crazy. Nintendo won't Dreamcast themselves. NX will be a handheld for 2016, being consistent with the general replacement time for Ninty's handhelds. Or it will be the start of the Fusion concept (I'm skeptical about this one).

I agree with you. But it makes me worried seeing how risky currently the home console area is and how much resources it eats up.

lol, there's a little thing called "contract". sony can't choose to stop.

There's no fusion concept untill nintendo says it. Wii U will continue getting games in 2016 and software will slow down in 2017, when it's successor will probably release. it is possible that wii u's successor releases in 2016, but it's not probable.

Like Torok said, history has shown with the necessity of creating Wii instead of making the wiimote a GC add on, its too hard to change brand perception. On top of that, people desire new products so even if Ninty just changed the U's casing and name, but used the same tech, it would be better than leaving things as is.